Update July 2024: The highly requested 50/30/20 tutorial is here! ruclips.net/video/4qlUdJypFLs/видео.html Hi friends! Many of you are asking how to create these different setups. Besides the 1st default setup, you'll have to manually create the budget groups to organize your categories. Monarch has a tutorial here: help.monarchmoney.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048883771-Custom-categories In short, you just need to: 1. Go to Settings > Categories, and scroll down to “Expenses”. 2. Click “Create a Group” to create the different groups in your setup (i.e. create one group called Paycheck 1, another group called Paycheck 2). 3. Go through the list of Monarch default categories and move each relevant category to those groups in a way that makes sense to you (i.e. move the “Rent” category to “Paycheck 1” group). 4. You can do these same steps for the “Income” section at the top by clicking “Create a group” and naming it based on how you want to group your income. If you have any more questions, leave a comment below or email me!
Thank you so much! I love that you showed the "by paycheck" version. This is how I typically do my paper budget (I know lol) and I think I will purchase Monarch now because of your video. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video. I am new to Monarch Money, like 3 days new. I am now going to reorganize my categories to map to Needs, Wants and Wealth. So THANKS for the inspo! Also, I will be watching all of your videos now. LOL.
What messes me up with my budget is if I pay my rent early (before the 1st) it puts it on the past months budget and messes everything up. Same if I get paid on the 31st. Anyway to fix that?
You can change the date on those transactions to fit your needs! So if you pay your rent early or get paid on the 31st, make the dates of the transaction the 1st of the next month and that spending/income will only show in the next month’s budget. Hope this helps!
@pinnotpaper I didn't know you were able to change the actual transaction date. I will have to look into that. For some reason my "actual" stuff on my budgeting seems off and I think it has to do with dates. I know you can write in your own budget but I like the automation of it all with the real transactions
@@pinnotpaper thank you so much! One last question! Should I be marking when money leaves my account to my savings or investing account as an expense in the budget or just a transfer?
@Vub. Any transaction between accounts in your household (checking, savings, investments, etc.) should be marked as “transfers” because the money is still an asset, it’s just located in a different account. When you count it as an “expense”, Monarch will think it’s a decrease in your assets and will lower your net worth (because it thinks you don’t have the money anymore).
Hi Taylor!! Thank you soooo much for posting your video!! I just subscribed to your channel! 😊 This is honestly the best video I have seen for Monarch! I love how you explained the ‘by paycheck’ method because I currently plan my budget on paper, but I’m trying to transition into a digital budget method. So I may just have to try Monarch for myself. My hesitation though, is budgeting 2 incomes and 2 different pay periods. I’m paid biweekly and my husband is paid weekly. Do you have any tips on how to best budget dual incomes and pay periods? Or better yet, make a video explaining this! That would be extremely helpful! Thank you again!
Hi Maria! Thanks so much for subscribing, it means a lot 🤗 I would suggest you make separate income categories for you and your husband (ie Wife’s Income and Husband’s Income). Of course you could break this down even further into “Wife’s Paycheck 1, Husband’s Paycheck 1,” etc. After that, instead of your budget categories being “Paycheck 1, Paycheck 2, etc”, I would divide it based on the days of the month they come out, such as “Bills for Days 1-7, Bills for Days 7-14, etc. This will keep it simple so that as both of you go through each week of the month, you know which things are coming up that week in a single category and can determine which paycheck(s) will cover those expenses. Using Monarch’s built-in calendar under “Recurring” could also help with this. But this is just off the top of my head! I’ll definitely have to do more brainstorming on this and possibly make a video 😅 Still hope this helps in some way!
@@pinnotpaper Hi Taylor! Thank you so much for the helpful feedback! I genuinely appreciate it! 😊 I wish you continued success with your RUclips channel!
Hello, thank you for the comprehensive video. So helpful since it's overwhelming to get started on the app. I'm wondering how to have access to the fix/flex budget though? Can you provide some help? Thanks!!
I’m happy it helps! All of the budget setups I showed (except the default budget) have to be created manually. You can do this by going to Settings > Categories, create 2 groups called Fixed and Flexed, and move categories to those groups based on how they make sense to you! Any other category or group you don’t need can either be deleted or deactivated so it doesn’t crowd your budget page.
Hi Taylor. Thank you for the information. How does one go about setting up these categories. Is there a setting that changes between these different setups, or does this have to be done manually? We are interested in the fixed/flexible setup. Thank you.
Hi Nimit! Each of these setups has to be done manually. The short answer to your question can be found on Monarch’s website here: help.monarchmoney.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048883771-Custom-categories The longer answer is here: 1. Go to Settings > Categories and under “Expenses”. 2. Click “Create a Group” and name it “Needs”. Repeat this step for Wants, Wealth and Other. 3. Go through the list of Monarch default categories and move each relevant category to those groups in a way that makes sense to you (i.e. move the “Rent” category to “Needs”). 4. You can do these same steps for the “Income” section at the top by clicking “Create a group”, naming it “Planned” and “Potential” and move/rename the categories to those relevant groups. Hope this helps!
Great Video! Two questions. How do I change my color theme with the one you had in the video and do you offer video (FaceTime or Zoom) training? I don't mind paying you to help me set up my account
I edited the video colors to make the blue a little less harsh on my viewers, so unfortunately, we don’t have a custom color theme yet! 🙈 As for video training, please reach out to me at taylor@pinnotpaper.com for more info!
Is there a way to budget by paycheck? I calculate my categories by year, then divide by 26 paychecks in a year, so all of my categories end up being fixed amounts (for the most part).
Monarch doesn’t have a default way to budget by paycheck, so you’ll have to do some workarounds to get the setup you need. Here’s something you could try for your situation: Group: Paycheck 1 Categories: Rent 1, Groceries 1, etc. Group: Paycheck 2 Categories: Rent 2, Groceries 2, etc. This does mean you’d have to split expenses into multiple categories in order to see it show up on the budget under each paycheck, so just keep that in mind!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! There are not many tutorials out there and yours is great. I did have a question that I hope you can answer. I did try to search the help section but was not successful. Is there a way I can reset the budget tool as if I have never used it? You see, I think the app opened up in my pocket and started the budget 1st time walk through. I was not about to choose how to set it up and it is in the default mode. I think I want to try the 50/30/20 but I have no ideal how to do this.. HELP!!!
I’m here to help as best as I can! I think there’s 2 ways to do this: (1) If you just want to reset the budget amounts, you can go to Budget > Budget Settings > Clear All Budget Values. This keeps all your accounts, transactions and history in Monarch, but allows you to start fresh with new monthly amounts you want to follow (aka your budget). (2) If you want to COMPLETELY reset Monarch Money, you can delete all your accounts, transactions and use the “clear all budget values” tool to reset all your budget numbers back to zero. Note - with this second option, you’ll more than likely have to manually import transactions (depending on the next time you connect your bank to Monarch), recategorize transactions again, etc. After you decide which way you want to go, you can go to Settings > Categories, and then create groups, rename/delete categories, and drag and drop everything in a way that suit your needs. If you still need help, email me at taylor@pinnotpaper.com and we’ll get you all sorted out!
Hi Angela! Option A: If both of you spend through your own accounts, go to Reports > Filters > Accounts, and select the bank account you want to review the spending for. Then click “Apply” and view the “Spending” tab to see the category breakdown. Option B: If both of you spend through a joint account, the best way to see spending by person is by using Tags. You can create them by going to Settings > Tags > New tag. After you’ve created a tag each for you and your husband, you can tag each transaction by person when you check-in with Monarch. Then go to Reports > Filters > Tags and select the tag (aka person). Then click “Apply” and view the “Spending” tab to see the category breakdown.
Hi, how do you get the grey theme? I really like the way that looks compared to the dark blue for dark mode they have. I cannot find the setting anywhere nor googling helps.
@@pinnotpaper Ah, I figured it must be, could you share which extension you're using? I use dark reader for mac but it doesn't quite looks like yours [looks real ugly because it defines the outlines in white]. Thank you for the response though, and you have fantastic videos, enjoying learning from them! I recently moved to Monarch from YNAB and really like the way it works in comparison. edit: nvm, i realized you probably mean filter in your video editing software, not an extension lol. Thank you very much nonetheless :-)
I made a credit card payment and it showed up in monarch as a deposit!? Not sure how to fix that. I’m on a free trial and may dump it if I can’t fix that
Hmm, it seems like we need to review your categories. Please book a call with me at pinnotpaper.setmore.com and I'd be happy to go over things more in depth with you!
1 negative I see is that you cannot delete a category without having to move all the options within that category first. Usually, if you want to delete a category, you don't want or need every option within that category. Now you just have unused categories sitting there unused 😤
Monarch has groups (which hold categories) and the categories themselves. If you go to Settings > Categories, you can deactivate/delete any group or category that doesn’t apply to you and it won’t show up on the budget page!
Update July 2024: The highly requested 50/30/20 tutorial is here! ruclips.net/video/4qlUdJypFLs/видео.html
Hi friends! Many of you are asking how to create these different setups. Besides the 1st default setup, you'll have to manually create the budget groups to organize your categories.
Monarch has a tutorial here: help.monarchmoney.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048883771-Custom-categories
In short, you just need to:
1. Go to Settings > Categories, and scroll down to “Expenses”.
2. Click “Create a Group” to create the different groups in your setup (i.e. create one group called Paycheck 1, another group called Paycheck 2).
3. Go through the list of Monarch default categories and move each relevant category to those groups in a way that makes sense to you (i.e. move the “Rent” category to “Paycheck 1” group).
4. You can do these same steps for the “Income” section at the top by clicking “Create a group” and naming it based on how you want to group your income.
If you have any more questions, leave a comment below or email me!
This is much more in depth than what I’ve been doing. Thanks
Thank you so much! I love that you showed the "by paycheck" version. This is how I typically do my paper budget (I know lol) and I think I will purchase Monarch now because of your video. Thank you!
Welcome to the Monarch fam! And no hard feelings about the paper 🙈
Awesome! Great information! Thanks! 👍🏼
Thank you so much for this video. I am new to Monarch Money, like 3 days new. I am now going to reorganize my categories to map to Needs, Wants and Wealth. So THANKS for the inspo! Also, I will be watching all of your videos now. LOL.
😂 I’m happy to hear it helped. Let me know if you have any questions!
I just signed up for monarch and this video was so helpful! Great budgeting category ideas. Thanks for sharing!
You’re so welcome! 💚💚
This is really helpful!
What messes me up with my budget is if I pay my rent early (before the 1st) it puts it on the past months budget and messes everything up. Same if I get paid on the 31st. Anyway to fix that?
You can change the date on those transactions to fit your needs! So if you pay your rent early or get paid on the 31st, make the dates of the transaction the 1st of the next month and that spending/income will only show in the next month’s budget. Hope this helps!
@pinnotpaper I didn't know you were able to change the actual transaction date. I will have to look into that. For some reason my "actual" stuff on my budgeting seems off and I think it has to do with dates. I know you can write in your own budget but I like the automation of it all with the real transactions
Yup! You just open up the transaction and change the date in the “Date” field. If you still need help, feel free to email me taylor@pinnotpaper.com
@@pinnotpaper thank you so much! One last question! Should I be marking when money leaves my account to my savings or investing account as an expense in the budget or just a transfer?
@Vub. Any transaction between accounts in your household (checking, savings, investments, etc.) should be marked as “transfers” because the money is still an asset, it’s just located in a different account. When you count it as an “expense”, Monarch will think it’s a decrease in your assets and will lower your net worth (because it thinks you don’t have the money anymore).
Hi Taylor!! Thank you soooo much for posting your video!! I just subscribed to your channel! 😊 This is honestly the best video I have seen for Monarch!
I love how you explained the ‘by paycheck’ method because I currently plan my budget on paper, but I’m trying to transition into a digital budget method. So I may just have to try Monarch for myself.
My hesitation though, is budgeting 2 incomes and 2 different pay periods. I’m paid biweekly and my husband is paid weekly. Do you have any tips on how to best budget dual incomes and pay periods? Or better yet, make a video explaining this! That would be extremely helpful! Thank you again!
Hi Maria! Thanks so much for subscribing, it means a lot 🤗
I would suggest you make separate income categories for you and your husband (ie Wife’s Income and Husband’s Income). Of course you could break this down even further into “Wife’s Paycheck 1, Husband’s Paycheck 1,” etc.
After that, instead of your budget categories being “Paycheck 1, Paycheck 2, etc”, I would divide it based on the days of the month they come out, such as “Bills for Days 1-7, Bills for Days 7-14, etc. This will keep it simple so that as both of you go through each week of the month, you know which things are coming up that week in a single category and can determine which paycheck(s) will cover those expenses. Using Monarch’s built-in calendar under “Recurring” could also help with this.
But this is just off the top of my head! I’ll definitely have to do more brainstorming on this and possibly make a video 😅 Still hope this helps in some way!
@@pinnotpaper Hi Taylor! Thank you so much for the helpful feedback! I genuinely appreciate it! 😊 I wish you continued success with your RUclips channel!
Can you show us step by step on how to create manually the 50-30-20 budget setup?
Just emailed you :)
@@pinnotpaper Could I get that too?
@pinnotpaper I know I'm coming to this pretty late but do you still have the steps? I'd appreciate it you could send me an email copy? Thx!
@@ciaraw8816 Full tutorial here!😊ruclips.net/video/4qlUdJypFLs/видео.html
@@kristencatlett6830 Full tutorial here!😊ruclips.net/video/4qlUdJypFLs/видео.html
Hello, thank you for the comprehensive video. So helpful since it's overwhelming to get started on the app. I'm wondering how to have access to the fix/flex budget though? Can you provide some help? Thanks!!
I’m happy it helps!
All of the budget setups I showed (except the default budget) have to be created manually. You can do this by going to Settings > Categories, create 2 groups called Fixed and Flexed, and move categories to those groups based on how they make sense to you!
Any other category or group you don’t need can either be deleted or deactivated so it doesn’t crowd your budget page.
Hi Taylor. Thank you for the information. How does one go about setting up these categories. Is there a setting that changes between these different setups, or does this have to be done manually? We are interested in the fixed/flexible setup. Thank you.
Hi Nimit! Each of these setups has to be done manually.
The short answer to your question can be found on Monarch’s website here: help.monarchmoney.com/hc/en-us/articles/360048883771-Custom-categories
The longer answer is here:
1. Go to Settings > Categories and under “Expenses”.
2. Click “Create a Group” and name it “Needs”. Repeat this step for Wants, Wealth and Other.
3. Go through the list of Monarch default categories and move each relevant category to those groups in a way that makes sense to you (i.e. move the “Rent” category to “Needs”).
4. You can do these same steps for the “Income” section at the top by clicking “Create a group”, naming it “Planned” and “Potential” and move/rename the categories to those relevant groups.
Hope this helps!
Great Video! Two questions. How do I change my color theme with the one you had in the video and do you offer video (FaceTime or Zoom) training? I don't mind paying you to help me set up my account
I edited the video colors to make the blue a little less harsh on my viewers, so unfortunately, we don’t have a custom color theme yet! 🙈 As for video training, please reach out to me at taylor@pinnotpaper.com for more info!
@@pinnotpaper Thanks for the reply. I just sent you an email.
Can you do a setup for retirees who draw their income from their IRAs ?
Great suggestion! Can you provide some context on how you’re doing it now? It’ll help me translate it into Monarch
Is there a way to budget by paycheck? I calculate my categories by year, then divide by 26 paychecks in a year, so all of my categories end up being fixed amounts (for the most part).
Monarch doesn’t have a default way to budget by paycheck, so you’ll have to do some workarounds to get the setup you need. Here’s something you could try for your situation:
Group: Paycheck 1
Categories: Rent 1, Groceries 1, etc.
Group: Paycheck 2
Categories: Rent 2, Groceries 2, etc.
This does mean you’d have to split expenses into multiple categories in order to see it show up on the budget under each paycheck, so just keep that in mind!
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! There are not many tutorials out there and yours is great.
I did have a question that I hope you can answer. I did try to search the help section but was not successful.
Is there a way I can reset the budget tool as if I have never used it? You see, I think the app opened up in my pocket and started the budget 1st time walk through. I was not about to choose how to set it up and it is in the default mode. I think I want to try the 50/30/20 but I have no ideal how to do this.. HELP!!!
I’m here to help as best as I can! I think there’s 2 ways to do this:
(1) If you just want to reset the budget amounts, you can go to Budget > Budget Settings > Clear All Budget Values. This keeps all your accounts, transactions and history in Monarch, but allows you to start fresh with new monthly amounts you want to follow (aka your budget).
(2) If you want to COMPLETELY reset Monarch Money, you can delete all your accounts, transactions and use the “clear all budget values” tool to reset all your budget numbers back to zero. Note - with this second option, you’ll more than likely have to manually import transactions (depending on the next time you connect your bank to Monarch), recategorize transactions again, etc.
After you decide which way you want to go, you can go to Settings > Categories, and then create groups, rename/delete categories, and drag and drop everything in a way that suit your needs.
If you still need help, email me at taylor@pinnotpaper.com and we’ll get you all sorted out!
Super helpful, thanks! I noticed I'm unable to enter cents- this wouldn't be a true representation of bank $$?
Right, for now, Monarch rounds up to the nearest dollar. However, they do have this feature on their roadmap, so hopefully we see it soon!
How can I break it down by paycheck?
I’d love to do a deep dive with you! Feel free to schedule a session with me here: pinnotpaper.com/book
I've added my husband, and he has linked his credit card. Is there a way to see how much either of us is spending in each category separately?
Hi Angela!
Option A: If both of you spend through your own accounts, go to Reports > Filters > Accounts, and select the bank account you want to review the spending for. Then click “Apply” and view the “Spending” tab to see the category breakdown.
Option B: If both of you spend through a joint account, the best way to see spending by person is by using Tags. You can create them by going to Settings > Tags > New tag. After you’ve created a tag each for you and your husband, you can tag each transaction by person when you check-in with Monarch. Then go to Reports > Filters > Tags and select the tag (aka person). Then click “Apply” and view the “Spending” tab to see the category breakdown.
Hi, how do you get the grey theme? I really like the way that looks compared to the dark blue for dark mode they have. I cannot find the setting anywhere nor googling helps.
I’m just using a filter to make it easier on the eyes for the video 😭 I hope they update the color themes soon!
@@pinnotpaper Ah, I figured it must be, could you share which extension you're using? I use dark reader for mac but it doesn't quite looks like yours [looks real ugly because it defines the outlines in white]. Thank you for the response though, and you have fantastic videos, enjoying learning from them! I recently moved to Monarch from YNAB and really like the way it works in comparison.
edit: nvm, i realized you probably mean filter in your video editing software, not an extension lol. Thank you very much nonetheless :-)
Haha yeah, I meant a video editing filter. But I’m happy you’re finding the videos helpful anyways 🤗
Let’s goooooooo #1stComment
Thank you!
I made a credit card payment and it showed up in monarch as a deposit!? Not sure how to fix that. I’m on a free trial and may dump it if I can’t fix that
Hmm, it seems like we need to review your categories. Please book a call with me at pinnotpaper.setmore.com and I'd be happy to go over things more in depth with you!
Can you add a new budget item in a category ?
Yes, you can! In Monarch, head over to Settings > Categories and you can add/customize as many categories as you’d like 💸
1 negative I see is that you cannot delete a category without having to move all the options within that category first. Usually, if you want to delete a category, you don't want or need every option within that category. Now you just have unused categories sitting there unused 😤
Monarch has groups (which hold categories) and the categories themselves. If you go to Settings > Categories, you can deactivate/delete any group or category that doesn’t apply to you and it won’t show up on the budget page!